[ NNSquad ] Re: U.S. broadband adoption hits 7-year low

[Brett Glass <nnsquad@brettglass.com>]

At 06:55 PM 8/12/2008, Lauren Weinstein wrote:
 
>U.S. broadband adoption hits 7-year low
>
>http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/08/us-broadband-sp.html

One key reason for the decrease in broadband adoption is, very
simply, that most of the people who want it now have it. Our ISP
still has a contingent of dedicated dialup users who have no time
in their lives for the Internet. I ask them roughly once a year if
they'd like to upgrade to high speed wireless, and even at $30 per
month they say they don't want or need it and think that it would
be a waste of money. The article claims that the slowdown in
adoption is due to pricing. But if potential customers won't take it 
at slightly more than what an AOL dialup account cost a few years
ago (and less than Compuserve used to cost), we simply have to write
them off as uninterested. Most of the customers who are coming to our
are not new to broadband but are merely switching from the phone
company, the cable company, or (in rural areas which we're just 
now reaching) satellite. They had broadband before; they just like
ours better.

--Brett Glass, LARIAT

    [ It's true that many people with dialup claim to be satisfied:
      http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1476457/dialup_customers_in_no_hurry_to_join_highspeed_world/

      But WISPs present special difficulties.  Some people don't want
      to deal with the perceived hassle of antennas, wiring and
      such.  Renters have to live with irate landlords who can find
      some other excuse to boot them out if tenants demand their
      rights to install antennas.  And line-of-sight issues are
      tough in many areas, even more so than for VSATs which usually
      point way up rather than out.  Or just maybe some users want
      to access applications that are prohibited by particular WISP
      TOSes if they're going to deal with broadband at all.

      It does not necessarily follow that because there are
      significant numbers of "satisfied" dialup users that most
      people who might want broadband already have it.  This seems
      rather simplistic and even a bit condescending.

           -- Lauren Weinstein
              NNSquad Moderator ]